Lies, Apathy, and Solutions
by purple-psychopath
Summary: The war is over, and for some reason people have deluded themselves that everything is okay. Harry knows that it isn't, in fact, everything is getting worse again. Just when he's allowing his typical angst to get the better of him, Hermione and Luna appear in a timely fashion to convince him that if everyone works together, they can find solutions.


Post-war

8."To lead people, walk behind them." Lao-Tzu

You couldn't even pretend things were okay. Hogwarts was still being rebuilt, even as students walked through the bloodstained corridors. Hundreds of people were still missing, and though everyone knew that they were dead, their bodies abandoned in unmarked graves by Death Eaters, the search continued. People have this warped idea that when a war ends the horrors of war disappear along with it.

Yet there are still a few stray Death Eaters, running around destroying muggle buildings. Some Death Eater somewhere has the Hogwarts registry in their possession, so however many muggleborns that should be attending Hogwarts right now, never got a letter. If it's not found, how many more will go un-schooled? You can make a vague guess at the number by the dreadful numbers of muggle families being murdered, seemingly at random from a muggle perspective, all too obvious from ours.

Aurors dart from crime scene to crime scene, desperately trying to put the pieces together, but the Hogwarts registry was one of a kind, the magic used in its creation long since lost. There's no way to know where the muggleborns are without it, and no way to save them.

It's been months, and nothing has gotten better. There was a wavering instant, right after the battle when wizard kind had silently pledged to never let it happen again, to be more tolerant. But everything grew more and more negative as that instant passed, people noted how many Slytherins had been Death Eaters, and then they collectively figured that ONLY purebloods could be pureblood supremacists. Conveniently ignoring that Voldemort had been a half-blood, ignoring also the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor Death Eaters.

'Cognitive dissonance', Hermione had called it. I called it idiocy, and how typical of the same flimsy populace that had once jumped between loving and hating me like changing their underwear. People want something to hate, and the very same who had once stood by complacently as Death Eaters murdered countless innocents, now they screamed abuse at the dozens of pureblood politicians still in power. One by one, good people stepped down to be replaced by half-bloods and muggleborns. The diversity wasn't the problem, it was the inability of people to realize, that blood wasn't what made a person good or evil.

The world again grew hostile, families like the Weasley's, Bones, Longbottom's; they were ignored, suddenly the idea was that ALL purebloods were evil. Laws were put in place to restrict the amount of gold a pureblood could have, to restrict purebloods from owning businesses, to stop them from ever becoming too powerful.

Reading the Daily Prophet was just as enraging as always, only now, instead of being angry at the constant stream of lies they spread about me, it was the real news that did me in. Every article about some new well-meaning law that would inevitably cause the opposite of the intended effect, and the articles about how "perfect" everything was now that "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" was gone. He was dead, and the papers still refused to name him.

Everything was NOT alright, it seemed like every day there was another body discovered in some unmarked grave, then weeks later it would finally be identified. Dozens of inferi were still being found in various caverns around Britain. People were STILL being murdered. But the news was content to paint the same happy lie that everything was okay. It was like fifth year all over again, only then it was "HE is not back." And now it was, "Everything is fine."

I looked back at the front page, where a celebratory article had been written, it praised the ministry for their actions to protect muggleborns. Then I looked across at the pile of auror reports, each one depicting a more gruesome image than the last. The ministry had done nothing to protect muggleborns, they had cut auror funding, they had this past week released two Death Eaters on bail, they had abandoned the research into remaking the Hogwarts registry; near ensuring that no new muggleborns would be able to go to Hogwarts. Yet the papers quoted a long and rambling speech made by the new minister, a speech written with words and promises that I knew to be lies.

"ARRRGGHH!" The whole system was frustrating, and people just didn't learn. Footsteps thumped up the stairs.

"Are you alright Harry?" Hermione was never far these days; it was almost as though she'd moved in.

"No. Why are they all so blind? There's going to be another war at this rate."

She nodded thoughtfully, "Perhaps."

"There's only so far you can shove people, the purebloods will stop being so accepting of this abuse eventually. They'll snap."

"But just think of how many reforms we've pushed through in the meantime! Werewolves can get jobs now, and house elves are getting treated better, and never before has a muggleborn been head of a ministry department!"

"You don't understand Hermione, it will all swing back eventually."

Luna had appeared behind us at some point, she finished my thought, "This society is glued to a pendulum."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Harry, wizard kind may not be perfect, but they need you to support them."

"Why should I support a broken system?"

Luna winked at me, "You shouldn't." Hermione glared at Luna, but the blonde continued, "You should balance them."

"How? How am I supposed to balance this world, they just swing back and forth between two types of intolerance."

"It's simple really, you just stop the pendulum."

Hermione smiled, "Stand behind them, support them, and lead them in the right direction. Lead by example."

"Someone will come along eventually to start it again, that's just the nature of our world."

"And when that happens, stay where they should be, they're not all fools you know."

"It's much easier for something to remain still, than it is to start it up again. "

I sighed, "And what of all the muggles and muggleborns still being murdered?"

Hermione laid her hand on my shoulder, "Being mad at the world isn't going to save them."

"Why do you think I'm an auror 'Mione, I want to save them, but I can't without that registry."

Hermione tipped her head thoughtfully, "I'll look into it."

Those words were all I really needed to hear, Hermione had never failed me before. She was the brightest witch of our age, if anyone could find out how to recreate the registry, it was her. We might not have been able to pretend that things were okay, but we could work towards making them so.


End file.
